Three countries sketch a 370,000 km2 shared sanctuary for the Coral Triangle's reefs

At an August workshop, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines agreed on a preliminary 370,000 km2 focus area for coordinated marine planning in the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape — the beating heart of the Coral Triangle, which holds more than 600 reef-building coral species and feeds over 130 million people. The pact leans on community patrols like the Coral Triangle Center's Nusa Penida program: "Marine spatial planning is not only about maps, policies and technical processes — it is fundamentally about people," said marine conservationist Rili Djohani.